TRANSPOSE BOXES FOR NETWORK INTERCONNECTION

• US 20120072614A1
• Filed: 09/22/2010
• Published: 03/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: MARR, Michael David, Judge, Alan M., Brar, Jagwinder Singh, Lamoreaux, Tyson J., Kelly, Mark N., Cohn, Daniel T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,837,517 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17356 Indirect interconnection networks

Abstract

The deployment and scaling of a network of electronic devices can be improved by utilizing one or more network transpose boxes. Each transpose box can include a number of connectors and a meshing useful for implementing a specific network topology. When connecting devices of different tiers in the network, each device need only be connected to at least one of the connectors on the transpose box. The meshing of the transpose box can cause each device to be connected to any or all of the devices in the other tier as dictated by the network topology. When changing network topologies or scaling the network, additional devices can be added to available connectors on an existing transpose box, or new or additional transpose boxes can be deployed in order to handle the change with minimal cabling effort.

Claims

1. A network transpose box, comprising:

a physical support structure;

a set of network connectors supported by the physical support structure, the set of network connectors separated into a first logical group and a second logical group each containing a plurality of the network connectors, each network connector configured to accept a network cable for transmitting a signal; and

a plurality of connection media, each instance of the connection media connecting one of the network connectors of the first logical group to one of the network connectors of the second logical group to enable a signal to be communicated between a network cable connected to the network connector of the first logical group and a network cable connected to the network connector of the second logical group, the connection media configured such that each network connector of the first group is connected to each network connector of the second group and each network connector of the second group is connected to each member of the first group.

2. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein each network device connected to a network connector of the first group is capable of being connected to each network device connected to one of the network connectors of the second group using a single network cable between each network device and the transpose box.

3. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein at least one network device connected to at least one network connector of the first group is capable of being connected to at least one network device connected to at least one of the network connectors of the second group using multiple network cables between the network devices and the transpose box

4. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second groups of connectors is keyed to restrict the type of network cable that can be connected to the connectors.

5. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein at least one of the connectors in the first group of connectors has a keying different from at least one other connector in the first group of connectors.

6. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein each of the network connectors in the first and second groups of connectors has a unique keying with respect to the other network connectors.

7. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein the connection media include at least one of electrical wires capable of transmitting electrical signals and optical fibers capable of transmitting optical signals.

8. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein there are a different number of network connectors in the first group of network connectors than the second group of network connectors.

9. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein the connection media are configured to implement a Clos network topology between network devices connected to the first group of network connectors and network devices connected to the second group of network connectors.

10. The network transpose box of claim 1, further comprising at least a third group of network connectors, connection media configured to connect the network connectors of the third group with at least one of network connectors of the first group, the second group, the third group, or a fourth group.

11. The network transpose box of claim 1, further comprising at least one loop back network connector separate from the first logical group and second logical group of network connectors.

12. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein the connection media are configured to implement a butterfly or dragonfly network topology with respect to devices connected to the network transpose box.

13. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein all of the set of network connectors are the same size and type.

14. The network transpose box of claim 1, wherein network connectors of the first group are selected to accept a different type of network cable than the network connectors of the second group.

15. The network transpose box of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for transforming a signal passed between a network connector of the first group and a network connector of the second group.

16. The network transpose box of claim 15, wherein the circuitry transforms the signal between an optical signal and an electrical signal.

17. The network transpose box of claim 1, further comprising:

amplification circuitry of amplifying signals transmitted between a network connector of the first group and a network connector of the second group.

18. A data transmission network, comprising:

a first tier of network switches, each network switch capable of receiving and transmitting data over an external network;

a second tier of network devices, each network device capable of receiving and transmitting data from at least one of the network switches; and

a network transpose box comprising a first group of network connectors and a second group of network connectors, at least a portion of the first group of network connectors each being connected to two or more of the second group of network connectors, at least a portion of the second group of network connectors each being connected to two or more of the first group of network connectors,

wherein each of the first tier of network switches is connected to one of the first group of network connectors using a single network cable and each of the second tier of network devices is connected to one of the second group of network connectors using a single network cable, and

wherein a meshing of communication media connecting the first and second groups of network connectors implements a network topology wherein multiple switches of the first tier are each connected to multiple devices of second tier via the transpose box.

19. The data transmission network of claim 18, wherein the network topology is one of a Clos network topology, butterfly network topology, a dragonfly network topology, or a combination or variant thereof.

20. The data transmission network of claim 18, wherein at least a portion of the network connectors of the network transpose box are keyed to ensure connection to the proper type of network switch or network device.

21. The data transmission network of claim 18, further comprising:

circuitry for transforming a signal passed between a network connector of the first group and a network connector of the second group.

22. The data transmission network of claim 18, further comprising:

at least one additional network transpose box connecting the first tier of network switches with the second tier of network devices in order to provide redundancy for the connections.

23. A method of deploying a data transmission network, comprising:

selecting a network topology for at least a portion of the data transmission network;

based at least in part upon the selected network topology, selecting a network transpose box including a plurality of network connectors connected using a plurality of communication media, the communication media being meshed in a way to implement the network topology, the network connectors being logically separated into a first group of network connectors and a second group of network connectors, at least a portion of the first group of network connectors each being connected to two or more of the second group of network connectors according to the selected network topology;

connecting a first set of network devices to at least a portion of the network connectors of the first group and connecting a second set of network devices to at least a portion of the network connectors of the second group, each of the network devices being connected to one of the network connectors using a single network cable,

wherein the first set of devices are able to communicate with the second set of devices according to the selected network topology.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the network topology is one of a Clos network topology, butterfly network topology, dragonfly network topology, or a combination or variant thereof.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein multiple transpose boxes are connected to implement the selected network topology, each transpose box implementing a portion of the selected network topology.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein selecting a network transpose box is further based upon a type of signal to be transmitted between the first and second tier of network devices.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive information indicating at least one resource capacity to be provided by a network deployment;

identify a network topology to be used for the network deployment;

identify network devices to be used for the network deployment;

based at least in part upon the network topology and the at least one resource capacity, select at least one network transpose box to be used in connecting a first tier of network devices with a second tier of network devices, the network transpose box including a plurality of network connectors connected using a plurality of communication media, the communication media being meshed in a way to implement the network topology, the network connectors being logically separated into a first group of network connectors for connecting to the first tier and a second group of network connectors for connecting to the second tier, at least a portion of the first group of network connectors each being connected to two or more of the second group of network connectors according to the selected network topology;

based at least in part upon the transpose box and a type of network devices in at least one of the first and second tiers, selecting cabling for connecting each of the network devices in the first and second tiers to one of the network connectors of the transpose box; and

generating connection information including a type of the selected transpose box and identifying the selected cabling for use by an installer in physically installing at least a portion of the network deployment.